Hooded Menace - The Tritonus Bell (2021)

From its horror-kitsch Razorback origins through the more morbid and somber death/doom that most would recognize, Finnish act Hooded Menace has always stood out as one of the most memorable in its style. But even knowing that, even frothing at the bit for past works like Fulfill the Curse, Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed, Effigies of Evil or the mighty Never Cross the Dead from 2010, I could not be prepared for how damn epic and unforgettable an album Lasse and company were about to unleash with The Tritonus Bell. Consistently crushing and catchy, having arguably the best production in the band's considerable catalogue, this was a record that unhinged my jaw upon initial release, and never let up through the rest of 2021, becoming my undisputed champion to help stave off a year of global and personal uncertainty.

This is just one of those 'total packages', locking in its atmosphere, musicianship, packaging and songwriting to the degree that many classic albums of my youth once did. I've heard others refer to this as a King Diamond of death metal, perhaps for the obvious reason that Andy LaRocque was on production here, but also the horror themes, the purple cover art might draw you back to an album like The Eye, and most importantly, the quality. Sure, it's a stretch, but replace the falsetto shrieking with growls, and the flashier heavy metal with superbly constructed death/doom grooves, and you might arrive at a place not too far from The Tritonus Bell. At the same time, I also hear a lot of Candlemass, Mercyful Fate grooves and even peak mid-90s Amorphis. The melodies and harmonies abound, leads are well-plotted to create an emotional impact over the drudging chords, and most importantly, like many of my fave albums in any sub-strain of 'doom metal', it understands that its compositions do not require an insufferable amount of slowness and repetition to wring despair from its audience. Hooded Menace has never really shied away from incorporating influence from traditional heavy metal or melodic death, but here the hybrid finds it strongest balance, and you get a masterful tune like "Blood Ornaments" or "Corpus Asunder" as a result.

Don't get me wrong, the album is still largely representative of its predecessors, but there's a dash of colorization here I haven't really felt since the sophomore album, with songs that are even better. Harri's gutturals are impressive despite any lack of range, and the drums are fantastic, but its the guitars that endlessly deliver throughout the 44 minutes, from the inaugural mild shredding of "Chthonic Exordium" to the super earworm finale "Instruments of Somber Finality" which I honestly wish was a lot longer because it totally hooks me. The production is top notch as it inevitably would be with this man in the booth, and while it might not focus too much on the cult and camp horror concepts like their earlier albums, this offers a more sobering, powerful escape into a shadowy, sinister necromantic universe. Mandatory stuff. Fuck, buy a copy for everyone you know, and turn their sunny skies upside down with morbid amusement.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10]

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed (2018)

Judging by the intro "Sempiternal Grotesqueries", you'd think that Hooded Menace were continuing to pursue the ponderous, slow path they laid out through Darkness Drips Forth, albeit with a less weighty and burgeoning guitar tone. And that funereal touch certain plays a part on this album, but at the same time, Ossuarium Silhouttes Unhallowed does wheel back a little to the sounds of Effigies of Evil and Never Cross the Dead. I don't wanna say it's back to the 'fun' of the Finns formative horror death/doom, the lyrics and atmosphere here are quite brooding and despair-drive, but the way the songs are structured offers a bit more variation and covers a broader network of doom influences. In fact, after the opening track, which is over 10 minutes in length, the rest are cut down to a more manageable length.

Of all their works, this one has some of their strongest traditional doom metal riffs, I mean there's a lot of stuff here that sounds like the death metal equivalent to Candlemass or Solitude Aeternus, and I for one think that is fantastic. Same deep rhythm tones, same eerie, lower guitar harmonies, but with a cleaner production than the last album, one that services both the sluggish architecture and the peppier riffing. The vocals are fucking great, really resonating off the lamentations felt through the guitar melodies, and the drums rumble and thunder like a subterranean space of collapsing rubble. Yes, the whole album conveys a 'cavernous' atmosphere much like the beautiful cover artwork implies, and there is certainly a streak of Incantation running through here, but where most of the bands copying that stuff become insufferably claustrophobic and cluttered, Hooded Menace serenade you with beautiful, elegant melodies that just drift about the cavern space ("In Eerie Deliverance"), occasionally remembering to crush your spirit, as they do so well within a "Cathedral of Labyrinthine Darkness".

The five 'main' tracks on this one are just beastly, among the better the band has written, and then they close it out with a shorter instrumental in "Black Moss", which nicely segues into some crisp acoustics that also stick around in the ear for awhile. At that point, you get the impressive you've just been whisked away from some dark, oppressive nightmare, so it's a nice touch. Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed, with its tongue-twister title, is further proof that Hooded Menace have transformed into, for my money, the most reliable death/doom band in the world. From the art and concepts, to the lyrics, to the delivery of the music, the massive production, and the willingness to toy around with their tunes just enough to keep them interesting and eschew the danger of monotony and repetition that is common in this niche. EVERY album they've put out is worth your coin, just save a few for the ferryman that will loom large over you as you're listening.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (lay waste and command)

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

Hooded Menace - Darkness Drips Forth (2015)

Darkness Drips Forth sounds partly like an experiment by Hooded Menace to flirt with a more funereal doom sound, not that it's quick to abandon the trappings that had defined the band to its date, but you can see in the swollen song-lengths and the slightly more glacial pacing that they were going for what might be their most saddening and serious album to its day. Add to that the rather bland (if still cool) cover artwork and you come away with what might be the most color-leeching of all their full-length albums, also fitting that motif. Fortunately, the Finns simply don't know how to fail at writing great music, and Darkness Drips Forth, with its four tracks in 40+ minutes, is quite the grower. I may not have had the same upfront positive reaction as I did with all their other albums, but I can say in all honesty that it has grown on me the most, reclaimed the most ground and nowadays its one I consider when I'm in the mood for the truly monolithic, sluggish death/doom but not quite ready to take the next step towards their countrymen Skepticism (which require another level of pathos and focus for me to handle).

The riffs on this are just as huge as other records, but drawn out appropriately to fill up the epic song lengths, and they all feel like they are being slowly carved into marble or granite, just staggering and Gothic and forcing the listener to abandon all hope within moments. The bass is awesome, slow and spun with just enough buzz on it to contrast against the mournful harmonies that are so vital to this sort of record succeeding, and often left alone a bit which is where the album actually feels more the most funeral. There are some brief flashes of cleaner guitars that are tastefully melded into the slowly lurching obelisk rhythms, and of course the gutturals here sound enormous, the perfect accompaniment to the style. It's not all death-drudging; the pace does pick up to a mid, rocking vibe in some spots, important to prevent any real monotony from setting in, and you often get a warmer sequence like that melody which sets in deep into "Elysium of Dripping Death", but that's clearly not the dominant offering.

Absolutely another quality Hooded Menace record, and it took me a little too longer to come to that realization, but I think this one is best when you're not interested in those little traces of horror kitsch humor that went into the earlier full-lengths. This is the band at its most ponderous and morose, cautiously crushing you through the certainty of their riffing strength and massive atmosphere. More of an homage to their old British Peaceville death/doom or funeral doom influences than their other efforts, perhaps, but still interchangeable with some of the material on the records that sandwiched it, Effigies of Evil or Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed. Realistically, you could dive into any of their works and come away comparably impressed, but just don't expect this one to give quite the same instant gratification that you'll find elsewhere. Persist, and suffer alongside it enough, and it will reveal its morbid magnificence.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

Hooded Menace - Gloom Immemorial (2014)

Gloom Immemorial is a fine example of what you get with a compilation when the band/label actually cares about the band's audience and attempts to offer them value and quality above a mere shell of a product. Someone could very easily take a handful of tracks off each of Hooded Menace's first few albums and then cash in, as the songs would likely sound great together and they could summon up some fancy cover art, but instead this is a collection of split 7" tracks and demo material that was probably unavailable to most of us that weren't right in on the ground floor of the band's career. That's not to say that some of the songs aren't available in other incarnations on records like Fulfill the Curse, but there's enough here to warrant inclusion on your shelf, and the Misanthropic-Art cover is also great.

For me specifically the split tracks are a treat, from the potent, limping cover of Anima Morte's "A Decay of Mind and Flesh", which they pulled from a 'mutual cover song' venture. Or the churning of "The Haunted Ossuary" from their split with the highly compatible Coffins, just a straight bruiser of a track that feels like a slow mosh through a mortuary. Or maybe "Catacombs of the Graceless" which is a fantastic track with a morbid groove that they put out on a 12" with Ilsa. Most if not all of the rare material on this is album-worthy, and that's just significant in that it shows us the Finns do not fuck around, and take everything seriously that they expect a fan might by. Now, you do get a few bits like The Eyeless Horde demo tracks which were also on the debut, but one can hardly fault them for that as a lot of folks probably want that collected, and it's, no surprise, strong material from a strong album. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that, taking any redundant tracks off here, just a collection of the split stuff would have made a formidable Hooded Menace record...the aforementioned "Catacombs..." is one of my favorite tracks they've ever done.

This ALSO contains the two tunes from the Labyrinth of Carrion Breeze EP which was pretty recent to this, so you don't have to track that one down. Could Gloom Immemorial have been more complete? Only slightly, there was at least one EP with a few covers (I'll go over this one elsewhere) that I can recall, but with 75 minutes of slug-like, mighty death/doom like this, layered in great mournful melodies, eerie and somber leads, and measured grooves that will twist your insides into a knot, this is a pretty mandatory compilation from Doomentia and Hooded Menace, unless of course you already own all of the separate splits and such.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

Hooded Menace - Necrotic Monuments EP (2012)

Necrotic Monuments might play it a little safe in the cover department, choosing two tracks that are doom metal related and thus fit straight into the Hooded Menace wheelhouse, but the Finns still do a great job of converting them into cuts that would work among their own set lists, and if you weren't the wiser you might not even realize it wasn't their own material. To me, that's the hallmark of a quality cover song, one that honors the original but gets converted to something fresh, not just a bunch of karaoke bar doppelganger bullshit. To that extent, while it's really short like most 7" records are, this maintains the consistency of quality that the band is known for, and I enjoyed both tracks and think they'd probably fit in on most of their full-lengths...

"Psychopath" from Swedish death/doom cult Eternal Darkness is really close to the belt, of the two tunes present this one would required less manipulation, but it's spot on as a Hooded Menace jam...with slow, mournful riffs and melodies that immediately envelop you into the Finns' trodden atmosphere. The other, "Burning a Sinner" from Witchfinder General's debut Death Penalty was the more interesting pick, since I love that band, and yet they've managed to transform that NWOBHM doomy goodness into something more crushing and fitting to their own sound. Some of that pastoral trad doom groove is certainly maintained here, and its thus a bit simpler than most of what you'd expect from this band's own catalogue, but they glaze over some of those sad melodies and then all is well. They even bust out into the most rock & roll lead they've done, but that also just makes sense with the context of the original group. The bass sounds pretty good on this one and frankly I wouldn't mind hearing the Menace tackle a whole bunch of oldies like this if they were ever to promote a full-length of covers.

As an added bonus, this comes packed with a version of Effigies of Evil on Relapse Records, so that's probably how many of you would experience it. I do think there's a Digital version of that full album, however, that also has a cover of Claudio Simonetti's "Theme from Tenebre", which is cool and shows us another side of Hooded Menace's good taste. We know they love great metal, traditional and extreme, they're also inspired by a ton of cult horror cinema. So you're not left out in the cold if vinyl does nothing for you. But even as a collector's item with just the two tunes, this is worth hearing since they show the same respect to the covers as their own material.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

Hooded Menace - Effigies of Evil (2012)

Don't be concerned that Effigies of Evil is Hooded Menace's third album for a third, different label, because this is surely more of a case of everyone wanting a bite rather than nobody wanting two. Some of the crushing novelty of this Finnish act might have worn off here, but once again we're faced with a band which takes its craft seriously, so much so that it writes better within this doom/death horror niche than just about any other active group I can think of. With the Relapse deal, they can likely reach an even broader base than before, and Effigies of Evil is perhaps their most accessible record yet, upping the variety of grooves, lurches and swaggers that characterize their approach to this beloved hybridization of extremes.

What has always struck me the most, and struck gold, about Lasse Pyykkö's dominant project, is the attention to detail through the riffing. Many death/doom acts are content to simply bludgeon along in the derivative configuration laid out by genre forefathers Paradise Lost, Asphyx and My Dying Bride, but Hooded Menace always has a lot of creativity and balance between the firmer mutes and grooves and the pronounced use of melodies and harmonies. There were rarely any snub-nosed, one dimensional moments marring their sophomore Never Cross the Dead, and the same must be said for its successor. Tinnier, clean guitars will be interspersed to break up harder metallic components, and even at the riffing's most basest impulse, the drawn out, almost funereal sounding slow sequences, they manage to break some fresh soil with haunting, memorable melodies. Even the 10+ minute opener "Vortex Macabre" eschews any hint of ennui when all its parts simply make a lot of sense together, and the presence of leads and myriad riff patterns ensures that you can forge through this piece repeatedly without succumbing to vapid exhaustion.

The vocals haven't changed much, they're still the same drawn out gutturals, but there's enough breath and sustain to the growls that they, too, elude the tedium I often associate with this style. They're admittedly not the most unique or compelling element to the music; that honor is bestowed upon the melodies, which achieve a great balance of Paradise Lost solemnity and the brazen harmony one might place in the mid 80s with bands like Metallica at their prime. Tracks like "Curses Scribed in Gore" or the ambient/sampled finale "Retribution in Eternity" even show a resplendent grasp of atonal majesty that hints at a deeper, more surreal level of atmosphere. The bass provides a solid pummeling, thick enough that it holds its own against the weight of the guitars, even if the lines aren't as well composed. Drums are polished, loud and perfectly fit to the slower, rock-borne Candlemass grooves that dominate much of the 50 minutes. If you've heard either of the prior full-lengths, then you know this is a band that doesn't exactly aim itself with the rawest trajectory: the tones are voluptuous and clear, but don't sacrifice heaviness in the process.

All told, this is nearly on par with the band's debut Fulfill the Curse, though I found myself drawn more to the songs on Never Cross the Dead. This time out the music just wasn't as creepy, despite the high level of compositional awareness. It's pretty consistent throughout, with no tracks really dominating others in quality, but all steady and varied enough to engage the listener. Samples are used sparingly, and there are at least a dozen or so highlight melodies dispersed through this that feel appropriately climactic and melancholic. Fans of Gothic/doom the likes of which are most common from Britain in the 90s, or the wave of Swedish bands like Isole who have picked up the torch, will have a blast with this and the earlier works, and those who enjoy well produced death metal with no shortage of melody and production will also dig it.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.facebook.com/HoodedMenace

Hooded Menace - Never Cross the Dead (2010)

Lasse Pyykkö has by now proven himself more than the match of Sweden's 'Rogga' Johansson; that is a single individual involving himself in a number of old school revival projects, many of which are teeming with quality. Having now listened through this album about a dozen times, it's difficult not to think of 'Leper Messiah' Pyykkö as the very best of his breed, because Hooded Menace is most likely the best of these revival works which channel the crushing sounds of 90s forebears into a tidier, modern mortuary of goddamn death and doom.

Fulfill the Curse was a fairly amazing album when it was released in 2008, but Lasse appears to have surpassed that record with a more melodic effort that maintains all of the rigors and even manages to inject a stronger feel of creativity into a few of the riffs. To take a long stagnant genre like death/doom and not only invigorate it, but make it fun to listen to is no simple feat, and I'm sure the band's campy horror lyrical themes might turn some old codgers away, but I've learned not to bite the the hand that feeds, especially when its gouging me on a sound I've rarely enjoyed in 15 years at least.

It's all here: the crushing force of bands like Asphyx or Runemagick in their most doomed of days, with a dash of the even earlier charisma of Autopsy, or My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost at their most loathsome, ichor bleeding hearts. But Never Cross the Dead doesn't just end there. It's not merely a tribute. The band have sharpened their scalpels and dissected precisely what makes one of these songs effective, and honed each of the seven original compositions here into a perfect, solemn force spinning tales of morbid, classic horror. Rarely does an album flow with such determination, and I can hardly think of a single riff across the first 48 minutes which doesn't seriously kick ass. "Rituals of Mortal Cremation" crushes with its huge, haunted melodic lamentations, and the "The House of Hammer" carves an epitaph into the tomb of the beloved film institution.

Unlike many albums of its type, however, Never Cross the Dead does not simply settle for slower, boring material through its entirely, very often picking up to a rousing mid paced crushing rhythm (as in "Never Cross the Dead" or "Night of the Deathcult") that induces immediate headbanging alongside Lasse's masterful, massive grinding vocals. He's got to be one of the most consistent vocalists of this genre. Despite a lack of real range, each line is delivered with enough inflection to taunt the listener away from the sterile monotony of the average growler. Really the only weaker moment here is the metallic instrumental take on "Theme from Return of the Evil Dead", but it's not bad, it's just that the rest of the album is so potent.

I would have thought myself tired of this style after Fulfill the Curse had Hooded Menace simply decided to phone in a sequel, but it's clear a great care has been placed into just about every festering, necrotic second of this record. It's one of the best albums I've heard lately, one of the best of its style to date (I'm not kidding), and well worth the investment whether you're an old hand at the cemetery or you just started digging up graves.

Highlights: there will be a buffet after this funeral, and you're all invited.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/hoodedmenace

Hooded Menace - Fulfill the Curse (2008)

I admit I was initially attracted to this release because of the great cover art, the cool name of the band, and the smashingly awesome song titles.

You had me at "Grasp of the Beastwoman". "The Eyeless Horde". "The Love Song of Gotho, Hunchback of the Morgue". Fantastic. The same horror noir appeal that bands like Deceased or Crypticus have preserved over the years.

My attraction quickly evolved upon hearing the record. This is crushing death/doom hybrid of the sort you haven't really heard since the very early days of Amorphis, Tiamat, Tristitia, or other bands who took the purest of classic death metal, slowed it down to a crawl and layered in the subtle melodic lines, elevating it into immortality.

The debut full-length of this Finnish band may very well achieve such a cult status, the songs are seamlessly catchy and really fucking doom. "Labory of Nightmares" grooves with abandon. The utter crawl of "Beauty and the Feast" and "Rotting Rampage" will appeal to your funeral doom fans as well as your classic death sect. "Arcane Epitaph" is perhaps my favorite, almost as if Candlemass got really fucking rugged.

A flawless debut, I dare say a near masterpiece. Classic death and doom metal cut of a rare cloth, it can both crush the fuck out of you and thrill you with its nostalgic horror-soaked lyrics. Acquire at any cost.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://www.myspace.com/hoodedmenace